The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and IOM are joining forces to tap into key technical expertise among the Somali diaspora in a bid to help rebuild key governance foundations in parts of the country.
Somalis with professional expertise in policy and legislation, human resources management and public financial management living in North America, the UK and Scandinavia will be targeted for temporary return for an average period of six months to provide on-the-job peer-to-peer training in their respective fields in northern Somalia initially, including Somaliland and Puntland.
Better management of public finances is just one of the areas that need to be urgently targeted given that decades of conflict have left an almost entirely informal economy with a lack of most of the structures needed to handle donor inflows, collect taxes, pay security forces or even to maximize the potential of the estimated one billion US dollars in remittances the country receives each year.
Initially, there will be six diaspora expert missions. UNDP, which is funding the programme, hopes to eventually facilitate between 200-300 missions in three years to all three geographic zones of Somalia, including Somaliland.
The programme builds on the achievements of UNDP's Qualified Expatriate Somali Technical Service (QUESTS) project over the past four years.
IOM will implement the programme, using the experience and expertise it has developed through its Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) initiative, and its network of missions in countries where Somalis with appropriate skills reside.
For further information, please contact:
Bradley David,
IOM Regional Mission in Kenya,
Tel: +254 710602 331 or
Email: bdavid@iom.int
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